Join me: eat on plan until Thanksgiving, then one WW-free day! [Archive]

DiscoDiva

11-04-2006, 09:03 PM

Okay, some of you may think I'm crazy, but I've been needing a kick in the pants to jumpstart my desire to stay on plan and not cheat (like I've been heavily tempted to do lately [and have, unfortunately, often done]). I think it's the stress, not that it's a good excuse.

Anyway, all the way to Lifetime, I allowed myself one day a month to eat like crap and eat all the food I wanted. I still made all my goals and loved my special free day. It gave me something to look forward to, and I was able to pass on something, knowing that in a few weeks, I could eat all of it I wanted.

So now, I have a new goal: to eat perfectly on plan until the day before Thanksgiving. Then, on Thanksgiving day - eat what I want, when I want, and as much as I want, and enjoy the heck out of every minute of it!!

Then, I may do the same thing until Christmas day, and make that another free day.

Anyone want to join me on this crazy venture? Maybe we can inspire each other to hang in there until T-day.

jajacobsen

11-04-2006, 09:15 PM

I'm with you and would be happy to extend till Christmas.

DiscoDiva

11-04-2006, 09:36 PM

Cool! So, how long have you been on WW?

jajacobsen

11-04-2006, 09:41 PM

I was on it last year from January through May, 2005. I did really well in losing weight and being in shape for my wedding in May. One year later of shared meals with my 6'4" husband, and I've put teh weigh back on. I rejoined in september. I have about 15 more lbs to lose. I haven't been great for staying on program lately so hopefully this will motivate me.

Katy

11-05-2006, 12:09 AM

This does sound intriguing. Let me get over my book club tomorrow and I'll let you know.

Sue

11-05-2006, 06:14 AM

I'm in! I wouldn't even try to stay within points on Thanksgiving!

Although I am going to my SIL's house, so it might be easier than I think. If I was going to my parents for dinner, all bets would be off!! I can not resist my mom's sausage stuffing :)

DiscoDiva

11-05-2006, 09:18 AM

Woo hoo! We got a good support thread going! Today, I'm going to a baby shower. To make matters worse, it's DH's family: boy do they cook up some fantastic food, and none of it WW friendly. But you know what? What I put in my mouth is my choice, and I'm going to jump start this with a good day!

18 days until Thanksgiving!! We can do it!

emmjay

11-05-2006, 10:46 AM

I'm in! I was just thinking I should be super strict until Thanksgiving this morning, and it would be great to have a bunch of people doing the same thing. Doing it until Christmas is a great idea too.

wildcat

11-05-2006, 11:58 AM

I'm in!! When I was on WW the first time in 2003 (pre-baby), I had "free days" for both Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. It's just wrong to deny yourself those holidays!;) However, I need to stick to WW for the month in between...that's the hard part with all the yummy treats around!

discodiva - The 1 day a month you let yourself have a "free day", did you use your 35 FP's each week on top of that? Just curious bc that sounds like great motivation to stay OP to me!

DiscoDiva

11-05-2006, 06:07 PM

discodiva - The 1 day a month you let yourself have a "free day", did you use your 35 FP's each week on top of that? Just curious bc that sounds like great motivation to stay OP to me!
Yup! I eat my normal 20 pts, plus 35 flex a week (usually 5 per day), then go crazy on my free day. Such fun!! So, if a free day falls in the middle of my journalling week, I go back to 20 pts plus 5 flex the next day.

greenbunny

11-06-2006, 09:31 AM

I'll do it. I'm finding that I gain if I use all my Flex Points in a week, so this will motivate me to stay at half or less in order to have enough for DH's aunt's pie fest at Thanksgiving. God, I love sweets. *drool*

Etoile

11-06-2006, 12:05 PM

I'm in!

Katy

11-06-2006, 01:39 PM

emmjay

11-06-2006, 02:13 PM

you know, the only sad thing in all of this for me, is that my BIL will be hosting Thanksgiving and to be honest, it's totally standard food. So maybe my focus should be more on my trip AFTER Thanksgiving instead of the actual Turkey Day.

Now if I can just stop DRINKING my damn points!! Damn that Trader Joe's and their oh so yummy iced tea & lemonade mix :mad: And damn my willpower.
Me too on both counts! I can probably eat mostly Core foods at Thanksgiving - I really need to worry about my BIL's wedding the Saturday after. Although I'll be responsible for a 4-month old, so I guess I can't imbibe too much. I need to stop with the random weeknight glasses of wine!

DiscoDiva

11-06-2006, 05:57 PM

Only 17 more days to go!

I had a good day, I hope everyone else has as well!

Greenbunny, you think you love sweets? I could literally eat them until I make myself sick. Then an hour later, go back for more. :o

chefker

11-06-2006, 06:02 PM

It sounds good to me, although Christmas is my real 'danger' holiday--mainly because I cook the meal, and have to do all the sampling & tasting. And I STILL want to stuff my face after having spoonfuls of this & that all day!

My 'target' is 22 points--normally I eat about 24-25 daily, so I use 2 or 3 flex points a day. Seems lately I have at least 20 Flex points left over by the end of the end of the week....and still I feel guilty. It might be really hard for me to stick to exactly 22 points daily though, but I will try. Or, I'll just earn some extra AP's.

I like the idea of a free day though. Sort of a WW amnesty day. :)

DiscoDiva

11-07-2006, 09:27 AM

Only 16 days to go!

And today I'm being taken to lunch at an Italian restaurant by a client. I'll just have a grilled chicken salad. Such a waste of a free lunch. :(

Reenie

11-07-2006, 05:32 PM

I'm not on WW, but can I join anyway? If you all would rather keep it WW only, I understand, too.

I am on a Spark People plan in which I get 1200-1550 cal/day but it has to be (if not perfect, then close to) 55% carb, 15% protein, and 30% fats. I just started back on plan 10/29/06, and I got through Halloween (but it was so hard!). Thanksgiving shouldn't be TOO bad since we won't be at home or at my family's, but at the ILs.

Question for DiscoDiva: after the one free day per month, how was the scale that week? Was it worth it? I want to do a free day, but I am afraid I'll regret it. I could really do some damage. :o

DiscoDiva

11-07-2006, 07:34 PM

I'm not on WW, but can I join anyway?
The more the merrier!

Question for DiscoDiva: after the one free day per month, how was the scale that week? Was it worth it? I want to do a free day, but I am afraid I'll regret it. I could really do some damage.
I went from a size 14 (pushing a 16) to a size 6 in 6 months. I always had one free day per month, and I always splurged a bit on Saturday nights (because I was always working a wedding). But, that worked for me, it may not work for you. Still, for me, I need to have an 'amnesty day' every once in a while, to make me feel human, ya know? Sometimes I just gotta pig out!!

I recently saw a weight loss guy on TV that said if people followed healthy eating habits 75% of the time, they'd maintain their weight loss. For me, that's pretty much true.

Well, I went to lunch today expecting to eat a grilled chicken salad with FF dressing. So much for that plan. I ordered whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, no cheese on it, and grilled chicken. Not bad there. But then I just had to eat a few pieces of bread with oil. Then I was treated to an Italian Cream Cake for dessert. Yikes! Still, I only ate about 1/2 the dessert. Overall, the meal was still a very significant difference from what I used to eat (much healthier), but still not what I had planned. Oh well, so much for my flex points for the rest of the week. :(

Anna Low

11-08-2006, 05:10 AM

Count me in! Although the scale doesn't yet reflect how bad I was over the weekend, it is just a matter of time. And, I have some cute new holiday fashions and want to still fit into them!

We are considering dining out over Thanksgiving, instead of cooking and having the leftovers. Anyone else doing something similar?

I also have one day or so a week to eat a treat (or two, or three!). Amazingly, the weeks where I did this reflected a decent loss. I firmly believe that it somehow helps to "jumpstart" the body. Rather like a reminder to the stomach that even though it won't be a daily thing, the goodies haven't completely been dismissed!

DiscoDiva

11-08-2006, 06:57 AM

15 days to go!!

Reenie

11-08-2006, 09:12 PM

Only fifteen days!

Your lunch sounds very good, DiscoDiva!

I ate german chocolate cake today. I actually knew I would because I brought the cake to work for a colleague's birthday, so I had figured it in (I put all of my stuff in at night the day before so that I know what I can have, etc... it just helps me stay on my plan), but still, I felt kind of guilty, and it wasn't really worth it, you know? Especially since I don't really like chocolate AND I got a stomach ache afterwards... blah to that.

DiscoDiva

11-09-2006, 07:47 AM

14 days to go!

This is really helping me. I hadn't realized how far I had gotten off track until I started this. Now that I'm journalling every single thing I eat, I realize how much I've been overeating the past few months. No wonder I was struggling to maintain the loss! I have the feeling I will lose a few pounds before Thanksgiving day. And, if I do this again until Christmas, I'll lose a few more. Maybe I'll start off the new year at the weight I was before this struggle started!

wildcat

11-09-2006, 08:04 AM

Good for you discodiva!! There's no way I could lose or maintain without writing it down. I also like having the control of knowing exactly what I'm eating and how much more I should or shouldn't eat at the end of the day bc I think my hunger button has been replaced with a craving or boredom eating button!

jajacobsen

11-09-2006, 08:16 AM

Well I've been sticking to plan as well. I did have a large lunch yesterday but a significant potrion of it was steamed vegetables, with 1 serving of sausage (bad) and low cal tomato sauce and cheese. The good part of it was all the fiber from the broccoli, mushrooms and spag squash. BUT, the only reason I ate a "heavy" lunch (for me) was I had a 10 mile run last night. Okay, how many acitivity poinst is that?

I would like to drop a few lbs before Thaksgiving as well.

DD - congrats on your weight loss! That is so impressive! I am a size 10 now and I really, really want to get back to a size 6 by Christmas.

Reenie

11-09-2006, 06:38 PM

I was terrible today. I don't even want to do the adding, but I'm about to go do it... I didn't follow plan. We had parent-teacher conferences today and a colleague brought cheese, crackers, and fruit for that same colleague's birthday for which I ate the German chocolate cake yesterday, and of course, I ate that. :rolleyes: Now, I'm not hungry for dinner, so I'm not going to eat, but I still need to know what I did. I also needed to post this here so that I would have to be accountable for it, if that makes sense to you.

jajacobsen That's great about the run! Was it for a special event?

emmjay

11-09-2006, 07:09 PM

I definitely want to drop a couple of pounds before Thanksgiving. My BIL is getting married the Saturday after and I don't want to look completely horrible in all of the pictures. Unfortunately I'm still 25 lbs over my "normal" weight so I am not going to look great, but every pound helps! :)

My goal is also to take a walk and also do some kind of aerobic exercise every day between now and then. Unfortunately for me we are going to Houston for Thanksgiving and they have the BEST restaurants there - DH is already planning where we are going, and none of them are particularly healthy (barbeque, anyone??). If I can drop a couple of pounds before we leave, then while we're there just maintain or lose a little more, I will be psyched.

DiscoDiva

11-09-2006, 08:08 PM

*sigh* I had to make appetizers for 100 tonight (cheese, crackers, fruit), and some of it accidentally fell into my mouth. More than once. :( Oh well, I'm still trying hard to stay on track until Thanksgiving!

jajacobsen

11-10-2006, 04:17 AM

jajacobsen That's great about the run! Was it for a special event?

I'm trainng for a half marathon on Thanksgiving Day. You's think I's be losing tons of weight with all teh running I'm doing (plus walking my dogs 1.5 miles every day), but no, I'm still 15-20 lb soverwight! Bleh!

I'm still OP. I'm just avoiding all social acvtivities that involve eating until the big day!

Reenie

11-10-2006, 09:35 PM

I stayed on plan today; doesn't it always seem harder to stay on after you've been bad? That's the case for me, anyway. I wanted to eat everything today. :rolleyes:

jajacobsen That's great about the half-marathon! That takes a lot of self-discipline and determination.

DiscoDiva

11-14-2006, 09:37 AM

Only 10 days to go!!

Where is everyone this week! Have you given up? Or are you making smart choices now in preparation for the big T-day (which now means Treat Day for me). :)

I'm even planning what I'll eat. In addition to the usual Thanksgiving dinner, I'll have apple pie and cherry pie for dessert. For snacks throughout the day, maybe oatmeal raisin cookies and some other type of fattening snack. I can't wait! :p Maybe candy to snack on as well...

Katy

11-14-2006, 10:48 AM

I've had a pretty good week so far. I've definitely been on plan in the sense that I've not gone over with my points. But honestly, I'm not really craving anything for Thanksgiving (again, mostly because it will be all store bought food) *sigh*

greenbunny

11-14-2006, 11:07 AM

I went over for the first time ever this past week. :( Only by 2 points, and I didn't gain, so I'll try not to think about it. I'm totally recommitted and am eating fruit like crazy. But I baked oatmeal raisin cookies this weekend...my only excuse is that I was possessed by the devil.

Reenie

11-14-2006, 02:13 PM

I have been doing a good job this week, too, after my terrible day last Thursday. When I weighed in, the scale didn't show any damage from the Bad Day, so I didn't feel so bad then. Our anniversary was yesterday, and I didn't even go nuts with going out to dinner!

I think that eating out is the hardest part of being on plan. I would rather eat at home, to be perfectly honest, because that way I feel more in control. I am going to a dinner party on Friday night, and I am really nervous about it.

I am also thinking about what I'll eat on Treat ;) day. I wondered if that was horrible that I was planning on eating specific things.

DiscoDiva

11-14-2006, 05:04 PM

I am also thinking about what I'll eat on Treat ;) day. I wondered if that was horrible that I was planning on eating specific things.
I don't think it's horrible, and it's helping me stay on track!

DiscoDiva

11-15-2006, 11:30 AM

9 days to go - we can do it!!
I had my WI today and I only lost 1 pound. :( I thought I'd lose at least 2. Oh well, it's better than gaining and it will still help offset my Thanksgiving day feast!

DiscoDiva

11-17-2006, 11:00 AM

Where is everyone? Have you given up?

Counting today, only 6 days to go!

I can never figure out if I should include TDay or not.

greenbunny

11-17-2006, 11:25 AM

chefker

11-17-2006, 02:03 PM

Still struggling. I swear joining this thread cursed me. I've over FPs for the second week ever, two weeks in a row now. I feel like I could eat everything in sight. WTH is my problem? It's not PMS time.

Same here. AF is in town for me though. I was controlling my appetite just fine, and used to smaller portions; then all of a sudden, BAM, I'm ravenous.

DiscoDiva

11-17-2006, 08:25 PM

I think the weigh gain/desire to eat constantly is a reaction to the holidays. Suddenly we're seeing Thanksgiving foods, seeing Christmas decorations, and we want to fill up on food and treats because it's the "holiday season." It's definitely a tough time of year for everyone!

wildcat

11-20-2006, 09:51 PM

I'm still here! My first 4 weeks were 100% on plan (used all but approx. 10 of my FP's each week). However, last week we had company in town and we were out of town one day with friends for a football game and I ended up using all my FP's and then 4 more. So, we'll see what the damage is on Wednesday at WI!

And omg - YES, I'm planning what to eat! My friend gave us some sugared pecan things last year that were TO DIE FOR and I emailed her for the recipe last week so that I can make them and take them with us to Thanksgiving on my free day! Is that wrong?:D

DiscoDiva

11-21-2006, 06:46 AM

ONLY 3 DAYS TO GO!!

Wildcat, you're doing so good!! I've been excellent so far this week, hardly tempted at all, because I'm waiting for Thanksgiving. Such a great motivator! :)

jajacobsen

11-21-2006, 07:54 AM

I'm doing well too - sticking to plan and down 2 lbs! But I can't pig out too much on T day as I still have 15 lbs to go till I'm back to my lifetime goal.

DiscoDiva

11-21-2006, 07:55 AM

Good for you - awesome loss!!

greenbunny

11-21-2006, 08:38 AM

I lost 1.5 despite my overeating, so I'm feeling like I skated by with sheer luck and I'm being so careful this week! Nothing but whole wheat, fruits and veggies, and non-fat dairy and lean meat has passed my lips so far.

Reenie

11-22-2006, 01:38 PM

Doing okay... REALLY looking forward to tomorrow! :D

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

wildcat

11-22-2006, 02:33 PM

Even though I thought I'd gain this week, I actually lost 1.4 pounds! So, that brings me to 10 pounds total in 5 weeks! And I can't WAIT for tomorrow and to eat all the yummy things I've been avoiding like mashed potatoes, desserts, rolls, etc!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!